Semiconductor devices have been known that read charges photoelectrically converted by photoelectric conversion films. For example, a structure of such semiconductor devices has been known in which electrode layers are disposed so as to sandwich a photoelectric conversion film and a silicon substrate including p-type semiconductor regions and n-type semiconductor regions is in an ohmic contact with one of the electrode layers. Moreover, a technique is disclosed in which a photoelectric conversion film is connected to a floating diffusion region via a semiconductor region and a transfer transistor.
Signals read from the semiconductor device include noise due to capacitance of the floating diffusion region in some cases. To eliminate noise, a technique is disclosed that uses a photoelectric conversion film formed of a silicon substrate and having a photoelectric conversion function and a charge accumulation function, and employs a noise elimination technique called correlated double sampling (CDS).
The conventional technique, however, cannot eliminate noise included in the read signals in some cases.